New Moston Seed Swap
Tag: gardening
Lovely leeks headed to veg boxes
These frosty leeks were sown last summer and are now being dug from the beds at The Hub, Alexandra Park.
Dug, trimmed and packed in veg boxes to distribute to the Foodbank.
Leeks along with garlic can tolerate the cold months over winter so are a great crop for winter harvests. Good planning is needed. These leeks were sown late back in April 2021 so you do need to plan ahead.
Garlic is planted a bit later in autumn and benefits from the cold spell over winter. The garlic however won’t be ready to harvest until the summer.
To find out more about the veg grown at The Hub, Alexandra Park contact hannah.williams@oldham.gov.uk
15th November 2021
New Fund! One Oldham Fund
Action Together have just launched a new fund.
| We are delighted and very excited to launch our new One Oldham Fund. This fund will focus on investment in the VCFSE sector’s resilience to deliver the ongoing Covid response, to contribute to the delivery of Oldham’s Covid Recovery Strategy priorities and to enable key VCFSE organisations to remain viable. It incorporates and builds on the support previously offered by Oldham’s Community Recovery Fund. Grant amount: Up to £10,000.00 |
Deadline: Rolling programme
10th November 2021
Report from the Big Potato Project 2021
Back in spring, Get Oldham Growing launched The Big Potato Project 2021. Northern Lily, supported the delivery and engaged community growers on behalf of the initiative. Huge thank you to Brighter Blooms for the potato donations and to Tesco for donating the bags, used as grow sacks. Email getoldhamgrowing@oldham.gov.uk if interested in taking part in 2022.
8th November 2021
John Ystumllyn Rose
John Ystumllyn rose, a brand new rose variety bred by Harkness Roses, is the first ever rose to be named after an ethnic minority Briton.
From Harkness Roses: John Ystumllyn was an 18th century gardener who was the first well-recorded Black person in North Wales and with his marriage to Margaret Gruffydd, part of the first interracial marriage in Wales. We wanted to breed a new rose as a symbol of friendship, love and community and to bring people together after the divisiveness of recent years. We also wanted to inspire people from all backgrounds to see gardening as a career or activity for them.
Find out more about this new rose and the offer to community gardens at: www.roses.co.uk/john
Harkness Roses and We Too Built Britain want gardening to be for all and have set aside 5000 roses for community gardens and will send out roses for free to community garden groups. To apply for a rose, community gardens need to email enquiries@roses.co.uk
4th October 2021
From weeds to flourishing garden in 2 years
The Bee Together Garden project started in May 2019 on a weedy bramble patch next to to Holy Family Roman Catholic Church, Hollinwood.
It was the brainchild of their parish priest who wished for the disused space to be transformed into a community garden open to all and were asked to take on the initiative, Pope Francis’s Encyclical on Climate Change & Inequality and On Care for our Common Home. With this in mind, they linked to the Laudato Si project at the Diocese of Salford, which is based at Bishop John Arnold’s home Wardley Hall.
The project is very much about reducing their carbon footprint. Also looking at ways to provide for and work alongside insects, birds, bees, hedgehogs, etc. To achieve this end the team have a newly planted wildflower meadow and a new native hedge.
The first task was to secure funding, there was nothing in the pot! Luckily the project was successful in obtaining a Green Dividend Grant from Oldham Council. Since then, the group have had six successful bids.
This money helped the group to clear the debris and purchase items to get the project up and running.
The project aim has been to grow organic fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers, which can be distributed in the community. Because the space had previously been used as a landfill site raised beds were needed, all of this being achieved by local volunteers, who have also built a metal shed and wooden tables.
Of course, like all garden projects the weather dictated progress and at times the volunteers worked through pouring rain and ankle-deep mud.
The group have also built their own beehives and, in the summer of 2020, installed their first Bees, in a break period of the Covid pandemic. An article in the Oldham Chronicle provides more detail: www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/news-features/139/main-news/135840/show-us-the-honey-local-church-community-project-gets-cash-boost-from-the-council-and-fcho
The bees have been a great success producing 50 jars of honey in their first year which is quite exceptional. With the expertise of qualified Beekeeper, Catherine Charnock, a number of free bee sessions were delivered, which were very popular.
The Bee Together Project is now linking with Holy Family Primary School, their eco-warrior children will be visiting soon to learn all about trees and how they affect our climate. With the children in mind, the group have created a wildlife corner with a small pond, hedgehog house, frog home, and a bug box and plan to erect some bird and bat boxes in the next few weeks. The volunteers also planted a willow dome, which is very popular with the children.
Can you help this fantastic project?
The regular team of volunteers would be grateful of additional help as the project is still very much a work in progress and are always looking for new recruits.
The Bee Together Garden Group meet regularly on Saturday mornings 10am – 12pm to suit those who work. However, meetings are also arranged during the week to fit in with volunteers’ availability.
For anyone interested in more details about the project or in joining the volunteer team please contact:
T: 07809434140
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Bee-Together-Community-Garden-Laudato-Si-100342491802980/
Join the Community Food Growing Volunteer Team
Come and join the Community Food Growing Volunteer team and help in creating new growing beds on the Northern Roots market garden site.
Your help on Thursday afternoons will be valuable in supporting the project grow more produce next year that will be shared with those in our community who need it.
You will learn practical techniques for no-dig growing, enjoy a share of the produce and the benefits of an outdoor social activity.
To find out more and to express your interest, contact hannah.williams@oldham.ov.uk
Sweet Potatoes grown in Oldham!
Would you believe that it is possible to grow sweet potatoes here in Oldham? Well, the team at Veg in the Park (VIP) at Waterhead Park have! This summer volunteers at VIP have nurtured 15 sweet potato ‘slips’ grown in large pots in their polytunnel and have some great sweet potatoes to show for it.
‘Slips’ are shoots that are removed from ‘chitted’ sweet potato tubers. You can order them online or through mail order vegetable growing catalogues.
If you plan to try them here in Oldham it is important that you choose from a company that sells hardy varieties that are suited to the UK.
Two to three slips were planted into large pots with free draining soil. They are related to the morning glory, (Ipomoea) family that includes bindweed so the plants grow up and need string supports. They have quite pretty flowers too.
Usually grown in warmer climates, they have a long growing season so need to be started in warm soil early in the season
Hardy varieties of sweet potatoes for growing in the UK are expensive to buy. The team at VIP are pleased with their success but aren’t planning to grow them for their produce sales.
Foodbank users benefit from Oldham grown fresh veg
Over the last 18 months the volunteer team at The Hub, Alexandra Park have been busy; planting, watering and harvesting. In partnership with Northern Roots, The Hub at Alexandra Park supports Community Food Growing Volunteers to grow fruit and vegetables in the heart of Oldham, both at The Hub site and a new small scale market garden on Snipe Clough. A wide range of vegetables are packed up into veg boxes and ‘no-need to cook’ veg bags are distributed to the community by Oldham Foodbank. The packs comprise a range of veg including potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, spring onions, beans, salad leaf, peas, onions and garlic. They have also included donations of fruit from the Grassroots orchard in Failsworth.
Over the past 10 weeks the team have grown and supplied the Foodbank with 120 veg boxes and 125 veg bags. This has included over 74kg potatoes, 22kg tomatoes, 230 onions, 900 spring onions and 830 carrots and so far, amounted over £2000 worth of produce (Calculated using the Harvestometer www.capitalgrowth.org/the_harvestometer/ )
Father Tom Davis – Chair of Trustees, Oldham Foodbank commented, “Once again the vegetables have been very well received by those receiving food parcels from the Foodbank. They are perfectly packaged and bring a ray of sunshine for those struggling to buy food. Thank you most sincerely from all of us.”
Joe Ford, Community Food Growing Project Assistant has been supervising the volunteer sessions and said: “It is such a rewarding and uplifting job to know you are part of a team which provides delicious and healthy produce to those that need it. We get to spend time outside in nature, learning about growing and harvesting food and feeling a great sense of satisfaction!”
If you are interested in supporting this project and volunteering with the team, please contact Hannah Williams at hannah.williams@oldham.gov.uk. To volunteer at Oldham Foodbank see https://oldham.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/volunteer/
Take a walk along Oldham’s Edible Routes
Did you know Oldham currently has two edible routes?
Visit the ‘Fruit Route’, a traffic free path along former railway route linking Alexandra Park with Grotton via Mumps and Clarksfield.
Along the way you’ll find a range of edible fruiting trees, such as apples, pears, damsons and soft fruit bushes – blackcurrants, raspberries as well as blackberries.
A second edible route is on Union Street, Oldham town centre comprising a range of herbs and edible planting cared for by Positive Steps and their groups.
These edibles are for the community to harvest and enjoy. Please share details of your visits. At Get Oldham Growing we’d love to hear what you have picked, seen and enjoyed along the route. Share on social media #getoldhamgrowing or email to getoldhamgrowing@oldham.gov.uk
Other Oldham fruit projects include an orchard of more than 150 fruit trees on the Grassroots site in Failsworth and Firwood Community Fruit Area.
Please let us know at getoldhamgrowing@oldam.gov.uk if you know of or are involved in other community fruit projects in Oldham.
FREE gardening equipment for schools with Morrisons
For every £10 spent in store or online at Morrisons, you get a Grow Token to help your chosen school get everything they need to get growing. Start collecting Grow Tokens and choose the school you’d like to donate them to.
Your chosen school will be able to exchange their Grow Tokens for FREE gardening equipment to get kids growing.
Schools – Have you signed up yet?
Sign up to make your school a Morrisons Growing School. Register your interest to make your school a Morrisons Growing School at https://itsgoodtogrow.co.uk/
6th September 2021
Oldham community food growing news recently on social media
If you are a project sharing community food growing news or events in Oldham, please use the #getoldhamgrowing
12th July 2021
Radical kindness with peas
Action Together worked with local artists, May Wild Studio to collect and share experiences of everyday kindness during the pandemic to celebrate the amazing contribution to Oldham.
Veg in the Park supported this “Radical kindness Project” giving pea planting kits to passing members of the public in the Spindles Town Square Shopping Centre when the artwork was unveiled by the Mayor of Oldham, Councillor Jenny Harrison.
In addition to sharing planting tips the team were able to let people know how they can get involved in growing at the Growing Hubs. For more information https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=WeActTogether&set=a.4453090371370514
Oasis Hub Oldham volunteers visit The Hub
Recently a group of volunteers from Oasis Hub Oldham visited The Hub at Alexandra Park to assist with the veg growing and see how the site has developed. Last year, the Oasis volunteer team prepared healthy cooked meals and delivered them to families. The Hub donated wonky or surplus veg grown each week which were included in the meals that were cooked.
Andrew Smyth from Oasis said: “It’s such a positive contribution to food provision, supporting wellbeing and developing self-reliance, so we are delighted to be a part!
“I would also hope that once the current crisis has passed there will other ways to bring our food projects together.”
Do you recycle or re-use your garden plastic?
Read the thoughts and reflections of gardener and blogger at ‘Life on pig row’ regarding the plastic we use in our gardens https://twitter.com/lifeonpigrow/status/1407685964676358147
If interested in the idea of a pot swap scheme in Oldham, please email your thoughts, support, ideas to getoldhamgrowing@oldham.gov.uk
Growing Hub volunteer, has photographs published
Growing Hub volunteers have many talents and skills. Brian Lomas, volunteer and chair of Failsworth Growing Hub, has just had a book of his photographs published. Called ‘Small Shops’ it is a collection of the photographs he took in the 1980s celebrating the small independent shops in North Manchester. As well as a greengrocer, there are butchers, barbers, a chippy, florist, sweet shop, fishmonger and more.
Hesketh’s, Greengrocer, Kenyon Lane, Moston Image Brian Lomas
Brian said: “Many of these independent businesses were under threat at the time, particularly with large supermarkets coming into Manchester, but also with shopkeepers coming up to retirement age and not having anyone to pass the business on to.
“So, I was keen to document these local small shops before they were gone.
“I’ve been taking photographs for over 40 years and in that time, things have changed dramatically. Many of these buildings are now gone completely, so I’m very glad that I captured that part of history while I could.”
There is an exhibition of the photographs 1 July – 28 August at The Modernist, 58 Port Street, Manchester M1 2EQ Open 11am to 5pm, Tuesday to Saturday. You can find out about the book at https://the-modernist.org/blogs/news/small-shops-brian-lomas
Keep safe when gardening this summer
Get Oldham Growing has supplied Growing Hub volunteers with hats and water bottles for safe summer gardening.
Many of us spend the summer months enjoying our gardens and allotments outside. We all need our dose of vitamin D, but if we don’t look after ourselves too much sun can cause heat stroke or heat exhaustion.
Stay safe in the summer sun:
- Keep the sun off your head – wear a hat
- Take regular breaks from the heat and find some shade regularly either indoors or a shady spot outdoors
- Limit the time you spend outdoors in direct sunlight especially at the hottest parts of the day, midday and early afternoon
- Drink lots of water and avoid drinks which are dehydrating such as alcohol and sugary drinks.
- Be aware of the symptoms of heat stroke and heat exhaustion – headache, dizziness, confusion, rapid pulse, high body temperature.
Get sowing now for autumn / winter crops
During the summer months we can get wrapped up in essential garden jobs like watering and harvesting, and seeing the fruits of our labour…but there are still crops that can be sown and grown in the summer months to enjoy in autumn or through winter.
Real seeds have a guide to summer growing. If you are interested in growing carrots, kale, beetroot, salad onions or cabbage, get a head start on what to sow during summer and find out here: https://www.realseeds.co.uk/summersowing2.html
Online self-guided courses with Garden Organic
Discover the benefits of learning online and develop your gardening skills in your own time and at a pace to suit you with our brand new self-guided courses. Find out more at: https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/events/online-self-guided-courses
Not keen on Broad Beans?
Broad beans are easy to grow, and in early summer they can be a bountiful harvest. If you’ve tried broad beans before and not been a fan, maybe you haven’t found the right recipe – the key to enjoying them. Fresh podded broad beans are very different to the frozen beans you find in supermarkets.
Broad beans on toast
You need broad beans, garlic clove, olive oil, cheese (hard cheese – cheddar or parmesan or soft cheese) lemon juice (bottled or fresh), optional chilli (flakes or fresh) if you like a bit of heat. Your choice of base – sliced bread, pitta, muffin, cracker. The choice is yours.
Quantities – you will need approx. 1 handful of grated hard cheese or 1 tablespoonful of soft cheese for every 1 handful of beans. If you don’t have enough beans, add a few frozen or fresh peas.
- Pod your beans, pop into a bowl of boiling water for a few minutes. Remove and wash with cold water. Drain.
- Peel and chop the garlic.
- Put the beans, garlic and cheese into a bowl and mash with potato masher or a fork. A food processor will speed up the task if you have one.
- Per 1 handful of beans mash in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 of olive oil.
- Taste and test – Add small amounts of oil and /or lemon until you have a texture you want to spread onto your choice of base. If using, add the chilli and stir in. Add a sprinkle of salt and ground pepper if you wish.
- Spread on toast, muffin, cracker, rice cakes or fill pitta or wrap.
Stoneleigh Park Community Growing
Much of the Community Growing activity at Stoneleigh Park during the Covid outbreak has been restricted.
Despite this, the team have kept the growing hub running. They have given out food, especially to older members of the community.
Through a successful partnership approach at Christmas, they also gave presents to struggling families and hampers to older people who were shielding.
Friday evening cooking sessions with local families are starting in July, using fruit, veg and herbs in the sessions once again.
In the summer school holidays, packed lunches will be provided to local children and OPAG are offering sport provision every Wednesday. It is hoped that growing sessions for local children will run again with volunteers when full and safe access can be resumed.
Throughout the past year Stoneleigh Park community herb and fruit beds around the play area have been available to local families to take fruit and cuttings. These have been well used, especially the rhubarb.
Growing Greens
It’s been a few years since Waterhead Park’s former Bowling Green has generated as much interest as it has recently. Residents, a range of local organisations, schools, local Councillors and housing and voluntary sector partners have been coming together to create a new purpose and vision for the site; a food growing, learning and community hub, managed by, and for, local people…
It was a group of nearby residents that recognised the potential community value of the land and with the help of Get Oldham Growing and its partners; have taken the first steps towards making the project a reality. With potential designs in hand and raft of ideas about activities, training and how to use the green to improve the wellbeing of its users, a community meeting was held.
Despite the rain, turnout was great and ideas were exchanged on the big challenge for the group; how to create a site that meets the needs of the community AND gives them the income to keep their work going long term. Ideas included (but were certainly not limited to) hosting school trips, pop up farmer’s markets, veg box schemes, after school clubs and even bee keeping! – do you know of something that has worked well elsewhere??
All agreed that this project is a unique opportunity to tap into a huge local interest in growing food, bring the community together and create something that will benefit people of all ages and horticultural abilities, for many years to come.
This work has attracted attention from elsewhere too, with the Royal Horticultural Society keen to support the work in these early stages through a community workshop. If you are interested in being involved let us know. In the meantime watch this space…
A Secret Garden in Watersheddings
An inspirational story that shows the impact of people working together and the power growing can have on individuals’ and communities’ wellbeing. Caroline Lawson tells the story of how Watershedding’s ‘Secret Garden’ came to be…
“It started with a rat in my back garden…
We had just been alley-gated in the area and the land at the back of our houses was a mix of council and private land, on the private bit stood three very run down garages, this was where everyone used to dump rubbish and large groups of young people came to drink and just cause a nuisance to the local residents, at our request the council knocked down the garages.
A large amount of rubble and debris was left behind. So one day I just thought I would go out and try and clear the area up, having been out about 2 hours and not really getting anywhere with the rubbish a few neighbours came out just to see what was going on.
I told them the story of the rat, and within an hour 15 neighbours were in the back (these people only really said hello to each other on door steps or in passing) we decided to hire a skip and a friend of a friend had a mini digger and by 7pm we had cleared the area.
The morning after I just went out to sweep and put come plants and tubs of flowers at my back gate, then another neighbour came out and did the same and by 11am I had put the kettle on for at least 8 neighbours we sat and chatted about what we would like to do with the space.
We all decided that we would tend to the space and keep it tidy, getting back the old “community spirit” that I knew of when I was a little girl. We also did a little newsletter to let neighbours know what we wanted to do with the rest of the alley and ask their opinion.
Since then we have just done what we like doing best and that’s gardening, growing veggies and watching out for the people that live within the boundaries of our secret garden (neighbours have said they feel safer and are happy that we have created the community garden). We became a proper community group with a constitution back in May 2012.
We entered into the Bloom & Grow competition and are very proud of what we have achieved; this year we won Best Community Garden and we got a Merit for Overall Best Communal Garden. More importantly, the neighbours on my street are now all friends and we see each other every day!”
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